A Millennial's Take on Today's Social Media Landscape

It seems that we frequently hear of a new social media app or website that is labeled the “next big thing,” but they often fail before too many people jump on the bandwagon. Remember YickYack? Exactly. There are so many aspects that make social media applications popular, it is practically anybody’s guess as to which ones will take off and be successful—like Facebook did. If you asked a high school student today what MySpace is, the majority of them would probably have no idea. However, I can almost guarantee that they all have a Facebook page. (Good job, Mark Zuckerberg! I guess Tom from Myspace just didn’t have what it takes!)

So the question is, what does it take to rule the social media world? It seems that Facebook, SnapChat, Twitter, and Instagram have taken over the industry, but what makes us gravitate towards these platforms instead of the hundreds of others? Let’s talk about it:

We have turned into a society constantly seeking instant gratification! We want it, and we want it now. This is why SnapChat is absolutely perfect, especially for Millennials who no longer have the patience to scroll through Facebook all day—a 10 second picture or video is all we need. Through these “snaps,” we know where all our friends are and what they’re doing without having to actually talk to them.

We seek acceptance from our peers! People use social media for three main reasons; to look smart, to make people laugh, and to gain approval. Everyone wants “likes” on their profile picture, to be able to share that hilarious cat video with their friends, and to show off their new job! This is why Facebook is perfect, everyone has it and everyone will see those pictures.

Deny it as much as you want, but we all want to creep! It happens. Everything you post on Facebook is there forever, unless you delete it, same with Instagram and Twitter (and then it can still be found with Google). With SnapChat, we can see our friend’s “MyStory.” We’re all curious about what people are doing, which is really the entire purpose of these social media sites—to be able to stay in touch with people.

So what does this mean for your business when you’re looking to grab your audience’s attention on social media? You need to know who your audience is and what they want to see, and tailor your content to them. Depending on your business, this can be a hard thing to do; the best piece of advice I can give you is just to get people involved!